out and back in the potomac, lovely. was clear for about 200-300m then hit a group from previous wave. i thought it would be more crowded, but i was surprised to see that it only got really crowded maybe every 200m or so. had to stop my stroke and go vertical about 3-4 times because of people around/in front of me. on the way back it was into the sun so i wasnt sure where i was heading, but i managed alright.

transition area was huge!

crowded, i was in the 'passing zone' for the whole race. worked out well enough, most people stayed to the right and the majority of the course was 2 lanes going each direction - but when it went to one lane, or there was a big crowd (ie going uphill) more people drifted into the left and sometimes got in the way. might have pushed uphills a bit too much, but nothing i didnt recover on the downhill. gel at :45 and 1:30, water throughout - too much water. when my mouth was dry i drank...


not drink as much water

had too much to drink on the bike. stomach hurt and i couldn't take in anything more than a sip until about mile 4 or 5. mile splits: 6.30, 6.36, 6.30, 6.39, 6.56, 7.59ish. mile 5 didn't feel slow, and mile 1 didn't feel too fast. hard to judge pace because i kept passing people. remember sunscreen next time.

sunscreen, start mile 1 slower and go for negative splits.

a little crowded, but for the number of athletes this was very well organized and plenty of volunteers to help out.